Flamboyant Nadal rolls in opener

High-strung 19-year old dazzles crowd at U.S. Open

? The love affair begins.

Rafael Nadal and the U.S. Open are made for each other. He is high-energy personified, a New York kind of guy – big, bold and muscular on court, impossible to ignore in his skintight, sleeveless, Big Apple red shirt and black toreador pants.

The king of clay, who captured the French Open two days after he turned 19 in June, showed in round one of the year’s final Grand Slam event Monday that he can be just as dominating on hard courts.

Seeded second behind Roger Federer, Nadal unleashed fiery flashes reminiscent of a young Jimmy Connors amid a workmanlike 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 rout of hard-serving American wild card Bobby Reynolds on a hot, muggy opening day.

One point demonstrated Nadal’s talents and tenacity.

He lunged to return a 123 mph serve by Reynolds, a former Vanderbilt All-American, leapt to catch up to two overheads and keep them in play, then sprinted in from beyond the baseline to pounce on Reynolds’ drop shot and pass him with a winner.

The crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium roared as Nadal dropped dramatically to his knees and bounced to his feet, punching the air with a left-handed uppercut just as Connors once did.

Nadal is a far more mature, exciting and efficient player than he was in his first two U.S. Open appearances the past two years, when he was sent packing in the second round each time.

This has been a breakthrough year for him. He’s won not only his first major title but eight other tournaments.

That includes the Montreal Masters on hard courts two weeks ago, with a three-set victory over Andre Agassi in the final.

“The last two years when I was coming here, I was playing very, very bad … but the worst moment in the year (was) when I come to the U.S. Open,” Nadal said.

“I think now is a little bit different, no?”

Yes, it is very different.

It is very different, too, for Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. A year after she emerged from virtual obscurity to win the title, she sprayed shots wildly in a 6-3, 6-2 loss to fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova and became the first U.S. Open defending women’s champion to fall in the first round.

There was little surprise in Kuznetsova’s early ouster. She’s been struggling to find her rhythm all year and came into the Open with a mediocre 27-14 record and no titles.